Shetland Isles Accommodation

Yell North Isles Shetland Isles Birdwatching Holidays Travel Scottish Islands

Known as Jala in the Norse sagas Yell is now home to around one thousand people. It is often overlooked by tourists with its dark and broody peat moorland not always seeming attractive at first glance. It was once a centre for fishing, whaling and trading with visiting merchants from other countries. Today many of the people living here have returned to a crofting lifestyle, their traditional way of life before Clearances for sheep rearing in the nineteenth century; although the nearby oil industry also supplements incomes and provides jobs for the islanders.

Yell is a fantastic haven for all sorts of wildlife including nesting seabirds on the cliffs and waders on the moorland that breed here in summer making it ideal for bird watching. For mammal watchers you are more likely to catch a glimpse of otters here than anywhere else in the UK. Billed as the otter capital of Britain they're often seen early in the morning around the ferry points to the island. Yell is also excellent for unhurried coastal walks to blow away the cobwebs.

Featured Scotland Accommodation

Sumburgh Hotel - Sumburgh

A superb nineteenth century country house hotel offering modern and comfortable accommodation just five minutes from the airport on beautiful Shetland

£43 to £85 Per person B&B (2 sharing)

Yell Shetland Islands Tourist Information

Yell, along with Fetlar and Unst, make up the North Isles of Shetland which are often less visited by tourists despite good ferry connections.

Yell is the biggest of the three and is the second largest island in the Shetlands. It is characterised by its peaty moorland and deep voes - often a favourite hiding place for German submarines in World War II. Today it is better known for its abundance of otters that you have a good chance of seeing in daylight. The moorland is home to many wading birds in summer and the cliffs provide niches for nesting seabirds particularly at Neapoback and Da Horse o'Burravoe.

On Yell there is B&B accommodation and a camping bod at Windhouse. The abandoned eighteenth century house at Windhouse, not the camping bod, is believed to be haunted and skeletons were found under the floors and in the wood-panelled walls!

There is a leisure centre in Mid Yell, the largest village as well as a couple of shops and post office. Cafes are found at the Old Haa in Burravoe, the Hilltop Bar in Mid Yell and the social internet/library cafe, Wind Dog Cafe, run by an opera singer, that also holds a variety of events throughout the year. Wind Dog Cafe is open weekdays from 9am to 5pm and 10am to 5pm on weekends. In the summer they are also open every night and Sunday lunch for meals. In winter, weather permitting, they are open on Friday and Saturday nights and for Sunday lunches. Bookings are preferred. Wind Dog Cage, Gutcher, Yell, Shetland Islands ZE2 9DF. Tel/ fax: 01957 744 331. Email: winddogcafe@btconnect.com

Getting to Yell - Scottish Island Hopping

Yell is accessible by modern car and passenger ferries from Toft on the Mainland. These run frequent services over to Ullsta at the south west corner of Yell. The journey takes about twenty minutes and advance booking isn't always necessary.

Ferries leave north Yell from Gutcher across Bluemull Sound to Belmont in Unst and takes a mere five minutes. Ferries also run to Oddsta in Fetlar from here and takes twenty five minutes. Yell Ferries Booking Information: Voicebank: 01595 743972 Bookings: 01957 722259. Ferry services general information: 01595 743970. Booking office opening hours: 8.30am-4.45 pm.

There is also an "Overland bus" service that runs from the Viking bus station in Lerwick on Mainland to Yell, Unst and Fetlar which picks up the above ferries to reach the islands.

Yell Walking & Wildlife

Yell is a deeply inspirational place as can be seen by the fantastic wildlife photographs that were taken over Bobby Tulloch's lifetime. A native to Yell, the late Bobby Tulloch was a naturalist, photographer, writer, storyteller, boatman, musician and artist. He first found breeding snowy owls on Fetlar and throughout his life produced thousands of photographs of Shetland's wildlife, wrote several illustrated books and appeared on television. Following his inspiration Shetland has a wealth of naturalists who regularly record the wildlife of the islands. Check their website link right for more information on the latest sightings of Shetland Islands wildlife.

Another locally based author, Peter Guy, has written guidebooks, "Walking the Coastline of Shetland", which provide useful information for exploring the vast Shetland coastline. The long and varied coastline of Yell, choc full of wildlife, makes it an attractive place for coastal walks. The coastline is punctuated by bays and sandy beaches great for taking in the view over a picnic. Coastal grasslands clothe the cliffs with rare plants such as autumn gentian. For more information on walking on Yell, including walking itineraries, check the "Walk Shetland" website, link right.

Yell is most renowned for its European otter populations with good places to see them over on the north east coast of Yell and the rubble breakwaters where the ferries moor up! Watch out for them if you're driving on Yell as running them over is the most common cause of their demise! Common and grey seals and harbour porpoises are also often spotted around the Yell coast with occasional sightings of dolphins and killer whales.

The four thousand acres of moorland on Yell is home to breeding curlew, whimbrel, plover, dunlin and, surprisingly, great skuas. You may be lucky enough to glimpse merlin that still breed here, but are not as common as they once were throughout Shetland. The peat is particularly deep here and where it isn't cut for fuel, provides an important blanket bog habitat for rare plants such as butterwort and sundew - insectivorous plants that survive in nutrient poor conditions by absorbing nutrients from insects they trap with sticky leaves or dew. Yell Sound and Bluemull Sound are busy flyways for seabirds travelling to and from feeding grounds and nesting colonies on the east and west coasts of Shetland. Black guillemots, common guillemots, razorbills, shags, kittiwake, puffins and arctic terns are all seen on and around the cliffs of Yell. There are several nature reserves on Yell including Lumbister, Hascosay and the Yell Sound Islands.

Yell Tourist Attractions Shetland Isles

At Burravoe is the Old Haa Museum in the former whitewashed Laird's house, built in 1672. Formerly this was the base for the Hanseatic League, a political and commercial association founded by Robert Tyrie that tried to defend their wares from pirate attacks. Unfortunately the pirates attacked the merchants' stores in 1696 badly affecting their trading ability. Today The Old Haa is a Museum and Visitor Centre housing a local history museum, tea room, gallery and craft shop.

In the north of the island is the moving Gloup Memorial that commemorates fifty eight fishermen who were tragically drowned on the night of 21 July 1881.

If you walk south from the memorial south along the steep sided voe, then west to Burgi Geos, you'll come to the remains of an Iron Age fort. Over on the west coast another Iron Age settlement has recently been discovered near Sellafirth at the Tafts of Bayanne.

Featured Scotland Accommodation

Sumburgh Hotel - Sumburgh

A superb nineteenth century country house hotel offering modern and comfortable accommodation just five minutes from the airport on beautiful Shetland

£43 to £85 Per person B&B (2 sharing)

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